ISLAMABAD, Jan 9: The International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour (IPEC) will initiate a new baseline survey to estimate the magnitude of the problem in Pakistan, which according to the 1996 statistics stands at 3.3 million children.

Speaking at a news conference here on Wednesday, visiting IPEC director operations from Geneva, Ng Gek-Boo, said the survey would help assess and monitor the progress made since ILO started various programmes to combat child labour in the country in 1994.

The ILO-IPEC mission arrived in Islamabad on a three-day visit on January 7 to discuss the introduction of Time-Bound Programmes framework for implementation of $10 million worth of projects on elimination of child labour in the country.

During its stay, the IPEC mission discussed with the government, employers and worker’s organizations and international bodies the possibility of introducing Time-Bound Programmes (TBP) which had become mandatory after ratification of ILO convention 182 by Pakistan.

Mr Gek Boo said the possibility to extend ILO-IPEC operations into Afghanistan was also under consideration.

Contact has been established with the UN officials in Afghanistan in this regard, he said.

Responding to a question, Mr Gek Boo said during his stay, he met officials from the embassies of the US, UK, Norway, Switzerland, European Commission, Canada and Japan.

Developing mutual understanding on issues relating to child labour and funding came under discussion during the meetings, he said.

In response to a question about child trafficking, Mr Gek Boo said currently the IPEC initiative to check child-trafficking was limited to Nepal, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.

After the signing of two important conventions on the trafficking of women and children and child welfare by seven South Asian nations in Kathmandu, IPEC is giving consideration to expand the programme in other regional countries, including Pakistan.

He said IPEC was exploring the possibility of introducing programmes to tackle the problem which had national and international cross border linkages and was hard to combat without the assistance of law enforcement agencies.

According to Unicef, a partner agency of ILO-IPEC in joint child welfare programmes, the trafficking of children and women for sexual exploitation is on the increase in South Asia as a result of poverty, deeply-rooted social and gender discrimination, weak legislation and spotty enforcement.

Meanwhile, ILO director, Johannes Lokollo, said Pakistan had taken considerable steps to combat child labour in various sectors, including the soccer ball, carpet and surgical instrument industry.

Mr Lokollo said three years after initiation of child labour elimination programmes, success was achieved in 95 per cent of the 100 companies working in a target area of Punjab.

About advocacy, national programme manager IPEC, Mohammad Saifullah, said a new media initiative would be launched soon to create awareness about the issue.

The new media programmes will utilize the resources of the electronic and print media to create awareness about child labour in the country, he said.